207 Wis. 147 | Wis. | 1932
The only point involved is whether the charge of a registered chiropractor for treatment of an employee
Under the governing statute, sec. 102.09, Stats. 1927, the expense of treatment recoverable is limited to “medical, surgical and hospital treatment ... or, at the option of the employee, . . . (under certain circumstances) Christian Science treatment in lieu of medical treatment.”
The learned circuit judge based his reversal upon the idea that chiropractors give medical treatment as that term is defined in ch. 147 of the Statutes, which is headed “Treating the Sick” and governs the practice of medicine and surgery. While it is true that according to that chapter chiropractors do treat the sick and that their treatment is “medical treatment,” it does not necessarily follow from this that it is such medical treatment as the workmen’s compensation act contemplates. The legislature might give such meaning under the act to the term “medical treatment” as it saw fit, whether it corresponded with the definitions of ch. 147 or not. Doubtless we should hold that under the act the term has the same meaning as in ch. 147 unless the act indicates clearly that it uses the term with a different meaning. But we are of opinion that under the act the only medical treatment contemplated is medical treatment administered by a physician; and we are also of opinion that a chiropractor is not a physician as that term is used in the act and in ch. 147.
Manifestly the statute does not consider Christian Science treatment as medical treatment although it constitutes treatment of the sick and treatment of disease. Such treatment is “in lieu of medical treatment;” therefore it is not medical treatment. The same is true, under the.act, of chiropractic
Under ch. 147 a chiropractor is not a physician, even though he does treat the sick and treat diseases and diagnose. Under that chapter physicians, are licensed to practice medicine (sec. 147.17), while chiropractors receive a “certificate of registration in the basic sciences and a license to practice chiropractic.” Sec. 147.23. But “no certificate of registration shall be considered equivalent to a license” (to practice medicine). Sec. 147.17. And “no person not possessing a license to practice medicine and surgery, osteopathy, or osteopathy and surgery, under sec. 147.17, shall use or assume the title ‘doctor’ or append to his name the words or letters ‘doctor,’ ‘Dr.,’ ‘specialist,’ ‘M. D.,’ of ‘D. O.’ ” Sec. 147.14 (3). Thus these names and letters may be applied only to those who are licensed as physicians'to practice medicine and surgery, and conversely those to whom the names and letters may not be applied are not physicians. It is held in Isaacson v. Wisconsin Casualty Asso. 187 Wis. 25, 203
The appellants contend that the 1931 legislature by passing Bill 497 A., which had it not been vetoed by the governor would have expressly put chiropractors on the same footing as practitioners of Christian Science healing under the workmen’s compensation act, indicates a legislative understanding or intent that chiropractors are not to be considered as physicians under that act. The suggestion is not without force, although standing alone it might not be controlling. As above stated, Christian Science treatment under the act is not “medical treatment” but “in lieu” of it, and chiropractic, if on the same basis, would not be “medical treatment” within the meaning of the act.
By the Court. — The judgment of the circuit court is reversed, with directions to confirm the award of the Industrial Commission.